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A Netflix reality TV star and son of a former attorney general has been fined nearly £3,000 for being abusive to staff on a flight and refusing to wear a mask.
Matthew Mawhinney was one of three Too Hot To Handle contestants arrested over behaviour while flying back to the UK from the Caribbean, where they had been filming the dating show.
The others were Harry Johnson, a tree surgeon from Darlington in County Durham, and Beaux Greenslade, a legal secretary from Bexleyheath in southeast London.
They had all been involved in the second series of the show – due to be aired this summer – which requires contestants to abstain from sexual contact for weeks in order to win thousands of pounds in prize money.
The trio had been filming on the Turks and Caicos Islands before flying to Miami, where they were spotted downing margaritas as they waited for their connection to Heathrow.
Cabin crew on the British Airways flight asked 28-year-old Johnson and 23-year-old Greenslade to tone it down after they were seen “kissing and behaving intimately” in their seats.
One witness reported they were worried the pair were about to perform a sex act.
The defendants became abusive after being repeatedly told to put facemasks on and being informed that the captain had decided they should not be served any more alcohol.
In a hearing at Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court on Friday, prosecutor Christelle McCracken told the court that stewardesses Heather Wenn and Sophie Griffiths had been the target of most of the abuse.
When Ms Wenn told Mawhinney, from Mayfair, Westminster, he would not be getting any more drinks, he told her: “Go and f****** look up who my mum is – Baroness Scotland, I’m a gold card holder – go and get me a drink.”
He screwed up the written warning he had received from the captain and threw it across the cabin.
Baroness Patricia Scotland, Mawhinney’s mother, served as attorney general under Gordon Brown between 2007 and 2010 and was also the first woman to hold the post.
She also become the first British citizen to be elected secretary‑general of the Commonwealth and has held the role – considered one of the world’s top diplomatic jobs – since 2016.
On the 7 February flight back from the Caribbean, Greenslade and Johnson were abusive to cabin crew members after being told they were being refused alcohol.
Greenslade told the stewardesses: “Take my f***** tray away, don’t you know I’m a f***** secretary, I will take your job away from you.”
Beaux Greenslade admitted abusive or insulting words and behaviour on flight home from filming the second series of Netflix dating show Too Hot to Handle
(PA)
Johnson called Ms Wenn a “bitch” after getting a letter from the captain saying he was barred from receiving more alcohol.
All three defendants admitted being failing to obey lawful commands of a pilot while on an aircraft by refusing to put on a facemask and using threatening, abusive or insulting words and behaviour.
In a letter to the court, Mahwinney apologised and said he was “deeply ashamed” of his behaviour on the flight and said it was the “most shameful and embarrassing thing” has has ever experienced.
The court heard that he had been prescribed anti-anxiety medication and sleeping pills before taking part in the show, which may have affected his behaviour.
District Judge Deborah Wright said the three defendants behaved with a “profound sense of entitlement without any regard for the crew or any of the other passengers on the flight”.
Mohamed Reza Ally, for Johnson and Greenslade, said: “It was youth, naivety and stupidity.”
Passing sentence, Judge Wright said: “You were at the end of a prolonged period of social confinement and that might have had some psychological impact on you and might have been the reason each of you behaved out of character.”
“You each acted with a profound sense of entitlement, you each acted without any consideration for the crew or the job they had to do.”
Each defendant was fined £1,500, ordered to pay £500 each to Ms Wenn and Ms Griffiths, and ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £150 and £85 costs for their abusive behaviour.
They were ordered to pay a further £100 for refusing to put on their masks when told to by the captain.
Earlier this year, Netflix announced Too Hot to Handle –first aired in 2020 – would return for a second season.
In the show, a group of single people are placed on an island in the hope of finding love – but cannot engage in any “romantic or sensual” contact or the prize money decreases.
Netflix data showed the first series reeled in 51 million views last year.
Additional reporting by Press Association
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